Solar eclipse casts shadow across Australia

Tourism Queensland | AP photoThe moment of a total solar eclipse is observed at Cape Tribulation in Queensland state, Australia.Request to buy this photo

Murray Anderson-Clemence | Tourism Queensland/AP photoPeople gather on a beach at Palm Cove in Queensland state, Australia, to watch and photograph the total solar eclipse.Request to buy this photo

Tim Wimborne | ReutersTourists look at a cloudy sky as a full solar eclipse begins in the northern Australian city of Cairns. Stubborn clouds that many feared would ruin the view parted - somewhat - in north Queensland, defying forecasts of a total eclipse-viewing bust and relieving spectators.Request to buy this photo

Tim Wimborne | ReutersClouds partially obscure the moon passing in front of the sun as it approaches a full solar eclipse.Request to buy this photo

Tourism Queensland | AP photoTens of thousands of scientists, tourists and amateur astronomers watched as the sun, moon and Earth aligned and plunged northern Australia into darkness during a total solar eclipse.Request to buy this photo

David Barker | Tourism Queensland/AP photoA hot air balloon floats in front of the solar eclipse in Cairns, Australia.Request to buy this photo

David Barker | Tourism Queensland/AP photoA woman watches the total solar eclipse at Lakeland, Australia. Some Queensland hotels had been booked up for more than three years and more than 50,000 people flooded into the region to watch the spectacle.Request to buy this photo

Hot Air Balloon Cairns | AP photoHank Harper, right, watches the solar eclipse from a hot air balloon near Cairns, Australia. Harper flew to Australia with his two children specially to watch the full eclipse, saying we "watched the sun’s rays re-emerge from behind the moon while kangaroos hopped along the ground below."Request to buy this photo

Tourism Queensland | AP photoTotality - the darkness that happens at the peak of the eclipse - lasted just over two minutes in the parts of Australia where it was visible.Request to buy this photo

Tourism Queensland | AP photoScientists studied how animals respond to the eclipse, with underwater cameras capturing the effects of sudden darkness on the creatures of the Great Barrier Reef. The next total solar eclipse won't happen until March 2015.Request to buy this photo